For the last 5 days I’ve been hanging out with some really cool marketers, internet entrepreneurs, and some good friends over at Yanik Silver’s Underground 6 Event here in National Harbor, MD. Apparently, National Harbor is only 2 years old and kinda like a new haven convention center town, full of in and outer’s each and every night. Needless to say… very cool place.

So when I booked my plane ticket two months ago for this event, I didn’t realize that I had booked it for Dulles airport. Turns out, Dulles is about an hour away from the Gaylor Convention Center. I tend to do that sometimes, just book a flight and not really worry about how far it is. I’ve done that on many occasions especially in California. Try it sometime, it’s nice to drive around and see the town.

So anyhow, I decided to take a cab to go from our hotel to Dulles airport. The price estimate was around $60 – $75. Kinda pricey but the Shuttle blue van guys wouldn’t make it in time to pick me up.

So we’re driving through Maryland, crossing a bridge looking at Washington, then pass into Virginia. We talk about life, El Presidente Obama, and food. The conversation picks up, then goes silent as I twitter on my Blackberry.

I asked him, “Do you take credit cards?” He responds in broken Engrish, “Sorry sir, I will have to charge you an extra 10%. It’s not me, but the company. Sorry.” I say no problem and I’ll use cash but we’ll have to stop at an ATM to get cash.

So along the way right before the airport we stop at the airport gas station, pop in, and I grab $120, a glazed donut (my friend/trainer Joel won’t be happy to hear that), and ice cold Dasani water.

Breakfast of Champions.

The taxi cab driver, Huraah, gives me $1 to pay for the water as we both wait. A nice gesture… (some nice reciprocity)

So I pay the $1.22 and we get back in the cab. We drive up to the drop off area in front of JetBlue and break out my wallet, hand him $80 as the ticket was $71.38 and he answers me…

“You didn’t like my services?”

I shockingly answer… “Uh no I did. That’s why I gave you the tip.”

He responds, “Sir, but you didn’t like my services? The fee was $71 dollar.”

I’m thinking to myself, “Is that not enough?” My brain starts to calculate the percentages. “ten percent is uh… $7. Fifteen percent is …. hmmm…” I give up. I think, “Should I tip him more?”

I played games with my mind.

Exit the car and hand him another $4 bucks.

So think about this…

Just by that little statement, he got me to think about the tip amount, feel bad, and all in one need to prove to him that I am a good tipper.

We part ways, never to meet again.

So in your marketing how can you replicate this system of the taxi cab driver to get a great tip, just by asking more.

Step 1: Reciprocity

The simple rule of the law of reciprocity is simple. I give you something and you feel somewhat obligated to give back. I give you $1 to pay for you water, without looking for anything in return. I want to return the favor.

So in your marketing…

GIVE GOOD STUFF AWAY.

Frank Kern calls it a “bribe” or ie “give away good s****” (those are Frank’s words) Alex Mandossian calls it an “ethical bribe.”

What do you give away?

Easy.

Let’s say your a social media whiz, you can create a video that teaches people how to use facebook video to create a loyal following of people by re-purposing a great article.

Or…

- An audio interview you did with an expert.. Give this away.
- A guide or checklist that shows “6 Simple Ways to Get Attention From Experts”
and much much more…

Or whatever.

The point here is to give good “valuable” (that’s the keyword) for FREE to your people. Move the Free Line, as Eban Pagen calls it, and give good stuff away.

What happens is that your list, your followers, new people, will start to love you and want to give back. How do they give back? Comments, giving you cold hard dollars, and they help spread the word for you (ie. viral marketing)

So there ya go. Be the taxi cab driver and buy your list the water.

Next is…

Step 2: Ask for The Sale

Don’t be a puss.

Ask for the sale. Be direct. Straight to the point.

John Carlton calls it, “Selling From Your Hells.” You can’t be a wimp when it comes to selling and making money. Now, don’t be a douche and sell in a sleazy way. You want to be cool, direct, and to the point.

Like Haraah, he asked for the sale. Actually he asked for more with that magical sentence. “You don’t like my services?”

Umm… Haraah. I do, here’s $4 bucks extra. A nice 57% EXTRA TIP.

You good salesman you.

In your marketing, here’s how you can apply this Haraah “Waa, you no like me?” Strategy…

At the end of your autoresponder series you can create an email using the subject line similar to the sentence that Haraah said to me.

Here’ some subject lines for ya’

Subject: “Huh. I just don’t get it.”
“Sooo… you don’t like me. Is that is [first_name]?”
“Frankly, I just don’t get you.”
“Frankly, I’m puzzled…” <— courtesy of Jason Moffatt

Then your copy you can get into something like this…

———-

I just don’t get it Bill. I’ve been giving you some really great?
valuable information to help you _______________, but
you haven’t ordered yet.

Is it because my breath smells?

or maybe because you just don’t like my services.

Whatever it is, it has me wondering what I did wrong. And
because of that I want to make it up to you. Who know’s
maybe it was something I said…

Either way, here’s how I want to make it up to you…

I’m going to give you the 5 extra bonuses for free and
my entire course free for 7 days.

I never do anything like this, but I figured it would be
a good way to kick start our relationship so I can
help you solve your problem.

So here’s the deal…

I’m going to give everything that’s included in my _________
course for only $1. (i know it’s kinda crazy, but you’re worth
it to me)

The bonuses you’ll get are:

BONUS #1: Secrets Guide
This is the exact guide that people just like you have
paid me $47 for. You… it’s on the house. Free!

BONUS #2: The Uber Awesome PDF Report
This will show you exactly how to build a big ol’ list in
no time flat. Kinda like like building steroids. You
also get this absolutely free. Some people have
paid me $97 for this. Free for Chris.

BONUS #3: The Blah Blah
This is really cool…

And the best part is that you can have it for free
for the next 7 days.

But, Chris… you have to hurry. I’m only offering this to
you for the next 24 hours. After that, I’m going to have to
take it down. I don’t want other people finding this secret
link.

here’s the secret link:
LINK

So check it out, you’re dig it.

Cheers,

Chris

———-

So there you go. A simple way to get mo’ money.

Send it and let me know how it works for you.

Cheers,

Chris

Dumb Strategy #1: Faking Social Proof

So you come to a launch blog and there’s 200, 300, even 400 comments on each post. You get thinking, “hmmm something’s up.”

Yea. It’s called faking social proof. Maybe you’ve seen it before. And it’s the #1 Dumbest Strategy you can make when launching your product.

Here’s a little story…

A buddy of mine was promoting for a “ultra-successful” launch and every blog post had over 200 blog comments. As an affiliate, you know you’re about to make a boatload of money when you see that many comments for each post, especially if you’re in 2nd place for the affiliate prizes.

As the buzz built up and the doors opened, day 1… 1 sale. day 2… 1 sale. day 3,4,5,6, and 7… no sales.

What the heck went wrong?

It’s faking the buzz. Something Robert Cialdini calls, “A bungler of influence” and egregious (Jay Abraham word) mistake.

You could probably guess what happened to this guys business.

Instantly done.

Creditability shot.

True story.

Don’t make this DUMB mistake and fake your social proof with fake blog comments. Karma will bite you hard.

I will personally smack you. I’m sure Jeff Walker will agree… to smack you too.

Dumb Strategy #2: Having Your Son/Daughter Write Your Sales Copy

Yes, I understand you want to save money and not pay a copywriter to write your emails or sales letter. I was there and most everyone is…

BUT…

This is a DUMB mistake.

Here’s why…

Copy is King in direct marketing. It doesn’t matter if it’s actual written sales copy or copy that you are reading in a video sales letter, the words you say, the inflection you have all comes down to the “salesmanship in print.”

Small changes mean huge profits. It’s all about conversions. Here’s a simple chart to show you the difference between a low conversion of 0.005% (half a percent) vs. a great converting sales letter at 3%. The difference is between a $50,000 business vs. a $1,000,000 business. Ask Rich Schefren.

Conversion % Traffic Sales Price Revenue
0.5% 1,000 5 $500 $2,500
1.0% 1,000 10 $500 $5,000
2.0% 1,000 20 $500 $10,000
3.0% 1,000 30 $500 $15,000

NOTE: Typically on product launches your conversion rates can skyrocket on the first day because of all the anticipation, curiosity, and other persuasion and influence factors working in your favor. I’ve seen conversion rates as high as 22.4% on launch day!

Talk to my friends Chris Haddad, Rachel Rofe, and Francis Ablola they’ll tell you the horror stories of bad copy on launch day.

Your affiliates will hate you. If your sales letter doesn’t convert and they don’t make any money… it’s a tough sell to go back to them for another promotion.Treat your affiliates like kings and make them a ton of money because in the end they are the lifeblood of any info product business.

Dumb Strategy #3: “Oh #%$… I Need Affiliates!?”

I’ve seen it happen time and time again. You plan the pre-launch, you mastermind like crazy planning each elemental step, “Scarcity is here, and ahhh the social proof works there. This is going to rock!”

Then it hits you.

“#%$… I don’t have any affiliates!”

It’s a week before your launch, you struggle to make deals happen all while creating the content, writing the emails, creating the product (because you’re not done yet), and the other 100 million thing you have to do, and you soon realize that no one knows about you or your product.

That million dollar launch will not happen UNLESS you plan.

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” – Proverbs

About 2 or 3 years ago at Bradley’s in West Palm Beach, FL, Todd Brown from Strategic Profits and I talked about the importance of actually “launching” your affiliates, not just launching your list.

So think about creating a pre-launch plan and campaign JUST for your affiliates. Involve them in the story from the beginning.

Dumb Strategy #4: No Backend

Great. So you built your product got it polished and cleaned and ready for launch, but what about your backend? Did you build that out yet?

Don’t make this DUMB mistake and NOT have a backend.

Yes, in “some” rare cases you won’t need one, but honestly it’s really dumb not to have something in place.

Ok, so you have 1-3 days before you launch and your struggling to find a upsell. You can’t create a product in time and time is definitely not on your side.

Here’s some quick and easy upsells you can offer…

4 Week Coaching Program

A friend of mine, Maria Andros’, had a couple of days left before he highly esteemed launch of her coaching program “Social Media Blueprint” and needed some quick guidance on her upsells. With the help of Harlan Kilstein and some semi help from me she formulated her upsell as a hands on personal coaching program.

They’re simple to do and if time is not on your side, a “hands on” personal coaching program is the thing for you.

In-Depth LIVE Webinar Series

The keyword here is LIVE.

You’ve got too much on your plate already and creating more videos for launch time is NOT happening. So host a live webinar or teleseminar series. It’s simple, there’s virtually no cost and people can gain instant access to you.

In this series you discover and go deeper into your product’s overall benefits.

Don’t make the mistake and not have a backend. Honestly, you’ll be doing a major disservice to the people that want more, want personal attention, and want to learn from you.

Dumb Strategy #5: “I Can Do It Myself”

Can you do it yourself?

Of course you can. Will you pull your hair out. Without a doubt.

Is it smart to go at it alone?

Ask any successful business person. Actually, you already know the answer.

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
- Ryunosuke Satoro

So true. Without the team, you will never be as powerful as you are together.

From my experience with doing many six figure launches, the elements and team are pretty much always the same.

• Graphic Designer
• HTML coder or programmer (or multiple)
• JV relationship manager
• Copywriter

Those are the core elements. Now, try and do it all by yourself. Your results will probably suck, especially if you have no experience programming, designing, creating web pages, writing good converting copy, or managing relationships and jvs.

Don’t think you can do it all.

This is the single biggest dumbest mistake I see many new and veteran entrepreneurs fall into… trying to do it all themselves. Heck, I’ve been there.

Here’s what I recommend…

Programmers

In my experience I found the best programmers are on odesk, rentacoder, and scriptlance. I use scriptlance for small projects, rentacoder and odesk for larger projects with developers with more experience.

Copywriters

I could definitely recommend a few. The best place to find aspiring copywriters is through Michael Masterson’s company AWAI, WarriorForum, and Copywriting.com.

You can find some great copywriters that are just beginning. Most are quite inexpenesive and provide some good work.

Graphic Designers

I recommend checking out 99Designs.com and a secret site that I think is better is use called DesignOutpost.com. You can simply post your project and have 5, 10, 15 designers created a rendition of what you are looking for.

From webpages, logos, banners, flash elements, you name it – they have it. And the best part, it’s super cheap.

If you’re this far, I hope you enjoyed the post.

I’d love to here your feedback. Drop me a comment below.

Muchas Gracias,

Chris

But not this time.

I just got back from a 35 day trip to Brazil with my “new” (yes new) fiance. We visited 8 different cities and took literally 7 “mini-vacations.”

We vacationed and took a…

• 5 day trip to Natal, where I learned the secret to flushing the toilets in Brazil (hint: don’t flush the paper down) and ate lobster like it was our job for $3 a piece.
• 5 days in Rio de Janiero where I proposed to Alessandra at Corcovado “the Christ Statue”
• 14 days in Goiania, Alessandra’s hometown and where I gained most of my 16 extra pounds
• 3 days in Caldas Novas, the land of a natural hot springs and the monster 1.5 ton cow beast (Dan Kennedy would be proud)
• 4 days camping in the middle of nowhere on a sandbar in the Aruaguia river, where the piranha’s are an Aphrodisac and poker goes til’ 7am.
• 3 days in Pirenopolis, where I learned that Alessandra’a uncle is the world’s biggest 80’s fan… he loves Heart.

The best part…

I made more money being on vacation than “actually” doing work back home.

Honestly, I “maybe” worked 5-8 hours throughout the entire 35 day trip and I still made a nice chunk of change *completely* on autopilot.

So what do I attribute it to?

A couple of things.

Creating Passive Websites

Ah… the beauty of affiliates and consistent, residual traffic. You can’t beat that.

This was a nice portion of the income I earned while I was away. When I create new products I first map out a plan for generating affiliates and creating that evergreen, residual traffic stream to consisntely drive new leads, prospects and sales to the new site.

When your creating your product, first off, it’s gotta be good. You can’t polish a piece of crap with pretty graphics.

Proof, proof, proof, case studies, case studies, case studies are everything.

One thing Yanik Silver mentioned before was, “do it, document it, and profit from it.”

I always kept that at the top of mind when creating new products. Because without the proof and some case studies of whether YOU have proved it first, it’s a tough sell… it’s then theory and theory doesn’t sell too well without some serious poop polishing.

Ok I’m getting off topic here, but ah yes. Passive income.

This comes from affiliates, ppc, and other jv partners. Creating this base of affiliates to drive traffic to your site is critical to creating a 5-figure passive income starting today.

Are you building a list of “just” affiliates?

Another thing and I learned this from Rich Schefren a ways ago, “Build a business, not an income.” So true. So start thinking long term, bigger larger themed businesses not one off websites that “make money.”

Keeping the Pipeline Full

I learned this when I worked for my friend Joseph Visconti’s company, Valuerich, when I was a executive salesman in which I had to sell magazine ad space to CFO, CEO’s, and Marketing Managers of small-cap public companies.

It was all about keeping the “pipeline” full.

What is that?

Simple. You stop getting prospects, marketing for potential clients, or driving traffic your pipeline becomes empty and you produce no sales. You then have to ramp back up build up your pipeline of potential clients or customers and like any numbers game, there is a conversion.

In my Product Launch Consulting company, Powerlaunch, from where I learned most all of my strategies from my indirect mentors Jeff Walker and Frank Kern, it’s always about creating a consistent flow of prospects coming into your pipeline.

Some clients can afford you but about 90% cannot. So keeping that new influx of potential prospects especially in a high ticket “hands-on” transaction like product launches is essential.

Ideally, knowing that 90% can’t take on me or you, you then create a range of products that they can purchase from you to get some of the knowledge that you provide with the consulting (duh I should do this)

Residual Results Based Marketing Campaigns

This is something I learned from Jay Abraham and one of my mentor’s Bob Serling…

“Create a marketing campaign inject it into a business. Take the same campaign and inject it into another, then another, then another. In the end you have case studies, proof, and something that is, and most importantly it’s PROVEN to work.”

It’s that simple.

You have a “proven” campaign that has worked with this Company A and produced $3,583 in 3 days, produced $14,738 in 5 days for Company B, and produced $7,873 in 7 days for Company C.

Companies today are looking for proven ways to make more money. Not a fancy ad they got from a ad agency which is new and unique and most likely will fail.

Give them stuff that works, that will make them money immediately, and you have a client and passive income for life.

Now that you have a proven campaign, results, proof, AND case studies you simply SCALE IT UP. But before you scale it up, you create your systems, your processes, find competent people to put into your system, and then promote the heck out of yourself and your company.

You can do this through direct mail, endorsed mailings (via email), space ads in newspapers, or through your warm network of friends, collegues, and joint venture partners.

The beauty about this is every time your clients run one of your proven campaign in their business… you get paid… and paid handsomely.

Just imagine having 3, 5, 15, or like a friend of mine, 250 businesses using your marketing.

Can you imagine the checks and money flowing into your bank account?

An ungodly amount.

Anyhow, I hope this helps some people to start thinking more RESIDUAL, more HAND’S OFF, more AUTOMATED, and more LONG TERM.

Cheers,

Chris Brisson

P.S. When I left Delray for Brazil I mentioned to Michael Masterson, “I bet being away for 35 days, I’ll make more money.” At around day 22 I sent him an email saying “it’s true.”

He said…

“Vacations are very good… but you won’t make any money on them unless you spend the time at the office sloggin away.”

So take his word for it. Vacations are great. Bust some arse, build your systems so you can then truly create a residual ever growing business to enjoy your vacations.

P.P.S. I must thank Brandon Fredrickson for inspiring me to write this. He gave me a case of “vacation’s over, get to work.” Thank Brandon.

P.P.P.S. Alessandra if you’re reading this… I love you baby. (Had to throw that in there guys)

It’s a simple “cash in the bank” marketing secret. Check it out here.

On the last day, my mentor Bob Serling invited us to go on his sailboat and coast around the bay in San Diego. My good friend and wunderkid copywriter, Chris “Money Fangers” Haddad, Peter “Double P” Parks, my girlfriend Alex and her friend hopped on Bob’s boat.

Here is our journey…

Bob taught myself, Chris, and Peter a huge deal of money making strategies using licensing. I highly recommend his course Million Dollar Licensing if you’re interested in an easy, proven, and highly lucrative way to make a huge amount of money.

Peter made over $823,000 using Bob’s Strategies. Haddad has made gob’s of cash, and myself… I’ve made a nice, very nice, chunk of residual cash just doing ONE of Bob’s simple strategies.

This chunk of cash is taking myself and my girlfriend to Brazil for 35 days!

Check out Bob’s Million Dollar Licensing course

Cheers,

Chris

What a great idea!

You see, I live in Florida. Yes, flat, landscape deprived, Florida. When I use to drive to Florida State in Tallahassee (i can finally spell it right), it would take me 6 hours to drive there. I’d fill up in Delray and stop in Gainsville to some gas.

On the way up is …well … pretty boring. There’s not much to see. Occasionally you’ll see, a Turnpike station pop up with a Popeyes Chicken or the illustrious Cinnabon. Other than that you’re looking at a lot of tree and flat ground. The only “hilly” place when making the drive is in “Howie-In-The-Hills.” There’s one bump in the road. It’s about a 15 foot bump and probably the highest elevation in Florida.

Ok enough about Florida because California…

Is All It’s Cracked Up To Be!

I’m sitting here in Carlsbad (about 20 minutes north of San Diego) looking at some million dollar mansions in the hills. Here’s my view…

On Thursday Justin and I flew into LAX airport to goto Frank Kern’s Mass Control event here in San Diego. Although the event is in San Diego, I figured I’d get a plane ticket in L.A. so then we can make the “cool” drive over to Diego.

It’s beautiful!

When Justin and I were making the drive from L.A. to here, I can honestly say that the views and landscape were like crack for my eyes. The mountains, the homes, the ocean views (OMG!), the street performers, the fish tacos, the breaks… everything is amazing.

I’ve lived in Florida my entire life and thinking to myself… “I can move here. I have an internet business.”

I’m going to be posting some more photos, videos, and other cool stuff along the way, but for now I gotta jump in the shower and get ready for Kern’s Mass control my mind event ALL day today.

Gosh what a horrible place to be right now…

[tags]internet marketing,frank kern,chris brisson,california beauty,mass control[/tags]

Take a listen:

[tags] product launch formula, jeff walker, plf 2, plf 2.0, frank kern, mass control, product launch formula 2[/tags]

Ryan is a young, smart, and very intelligent marketer. He’s a guy that’s going places.

Take a listen to Ryan product launch story…

[tags]product launch formula, jeff walker, plf 2.0, ryan wade, chris brisson, launch a product, frank kern[/tags]

It’s now 2008 and there have been thousands of launches all with different tactics, tricks, and persuasion techniques. I’ve used many in my launches and clients launches and have seen some crazy new techniques over the years that have helped pull in hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

Anyhow, here’s the interview with Jon.

Oh yea, one of the workers at the hotel was taping down the floor so you can hear the “rippppping” noise. No, it’s not me or Jon farting, although it sounds like it.

Also, let me know what you thought of the interview by leaving me a super-duper killer comment below.

Product Launch Formula 2.0 – Jon Walker Interview from chris brisson on Vimeo.

[tags]product launch formula, jeff walker, john reese, jon walker, plf 2, product launches, launch a product, business launch, andy jenkins, stompernet, brad fallon, frank kern[/tags]

Anyhow, I did a short quick interview with Trevor on my Flip Camera. He talks about how he implemented a quick little product launch for a client and pulled an easy $800 with like zero list. Watch the interview here:

Product Launch Formula 2.0 is coming out soon. I’m going to be giving some KILLER bonuses away to the people who order form me. I recently started a Product Launch Consulting Company and have helped many people see some dramatic results. I will be giving away some consulting time as a bonus. You’ll hear about it soon.

See how one guy went from Food Stamps to Six Figures using Jeff’s Product Launch Formula.

[tags]jeff walker, product launch formula, plf 2.0, john reese, frank kern, mass control, product launches, launch a product[/tags]